Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 00 ~ ...... On the road to recovery Volume XXV Sharon Clayton. Publisher Mike Klinger,Compl'roli n Skip John son . A.uocuw Pub iish ert National Sales Managt!T Jack Man~ s.. Associ4t~ Pub lishert Editor Rh eba Smi th . Circulation Mana gn' Caroli ne Cmdry. EX«UtM Suu14ry to t h~ Publ ish er Ed itorial Kit Palmer, Associate Editor Pa ul Ca rr u thers, A ssociat e Edito r Na te Rauba , Ass ociate Editor Brian Cauereon, Associate Ed itor T yro ne Van Hooyd onk, Assistant Edi tor Edwina Man gu s, Calendar Editor Advertising Mike Ch urc h . Senior Soles Managrr Terry Prat t Senior Sales Man aKrr Mark Thome. W~.st"" Sales Managrr Don Stoeber, W e's l~m Sales Managrr Mar k Mirchell . Eastern Sales Manage'T Tho ma s R. Corner, Eastern Sales Managn Debbie Win kler. W~.st"" Ad Coo rdin ator Carla Borden. Eastern Ad Coo rdi nator On May 28 I was serio usly injured in a freak practice crash. I suffered six broken vertebrae, a nd although there was no paralysis I ha ve a long rehabi litation program ahead of me and am now on the road to recovery. I would lik e to take this opportunity to thank the many people who sent flowers and cards and phoned fro m around the globe. I would like to personall y tha nk th e followi ng people for goi ng above and beyond the ca ll of friendship: Bob Rathkamp and Jackie Mitchell ofAXO Sport, Drew Lein of 100% Products, the entire staffs of Dirt Rider and Super MX magazines, Bob and Bill Simons, and Marci Murray. It is th ese people and th e many others wh o made me realize th at I' ve been involved almost my entire life in a spo rt that is th e greatest on earth r WILLY SIMONS Simi Vall ey, CA Graphic s a nd Production Malcolm Wil son .Production Mana gn Dennis C reene , Lab. T ech. Diana Hilgenberg . Grap hi c Artist 5tacry G uot. Graphic Artist J im m ie O 'DeII, Graphic A rtist Ma nd y Leo. Graphu Ar tist Ma rion H a ta sh ita . T"I/H.seUn Carolyn Bran ham . T y/Hsd tn Aricont' Tefias, T"I~Selln Rolling Thunder Show Account ing /Date Processi ng Donna Bryan. A ceu Rt'uivable Coordinator Geneva Repass. Assista nt Fran Hamwey, ered;[ Circ ulat ion Sarah Taylor. As.1is'ant Alma Anguiano, Au iSlant Cheri Chapman, Assistant Mari ta Adams. Auistanl Herlane Rich mo nd. Assistant Carol Sca n nell, Assistant Circulation De velopment Ron Davidson. , Mana~n I was in awe when the H arl ey truck pull ed into town. They were o n their way to wh at was th e fastest mi le until DuQuoin took tha t hon or. I'd j us t like to say tha nks to everyo ne in vol ved wit h the Rolling Thunder Show. It's rea lly hard to beat the sound of the bikes o n the starti ng line wa iti ng for the light. You j ust couldn' t ask for a better way to spe nd your weekend . Racing at its best! SUS AN BENNETT Cisco, IL Wa nt Ads J oa n Russian. Want Ad Sales Service a nd Support Chris Aitcheson . H eadq uart n s Reu pt ion ist Leo nard Herring, Se'TVlCe' and Support Nat iona l Headqua rters 220 1 Cherry Ave.• Lo ng Beach , CA 9Ol'S06. 1'.0 . Bo x 498. Lo ng Be ch. CA 90801·0498 a (2U ) 427 -743~; 2 1 3 /6~6-88 44 . FAX ( 2 1~ ) 427·6685 Eastern Office ·1190 Firs t Ave.• Tucker. GA . 30084; ma iling address P.O. Box 805. T ucker. GA 30085- 0ll05. (404) 9$1-7850. FAX (404) 9~4 -3 1 12 Cvcle S ew, (US PS 111·340) is publi shed wee-kly except ih e first and last week of th e ca lenda r yea r for 132.50 per yea r by Cycle News , In c., 2201 Ch erry Avenue. Lo~K Bach . CA 90806. Second class po513gC' paid a t Lon g Beach. CA. and additional mailing offi ces. POS T M AST ER : Se n d f orm 3 57 9 t o Cycle New•• P.O. Bo x 4 9B. long Beech . CA 90 801 ·0498 . To determine the ex piration dete of your subscription. check the fo ur numben on the first line of yo ur ad dress 18be1. The first two d~its indicate the lest issue number you II receive e nd the leat two cheracte,. indic.te the year of the issue. Subecripricn rates: O ne year, second class mail. S~2. 50 . Cycle News welcomes unsolicited editorial material incl udi ng stories. ca rtoons. p ho tos, etc. Suc h material. ifr ublished. beco mes the excl usive pro~rl y 0 Cycle News. Such acC('PleQ mat erial is subject to revision as is n ecessa ry in the: sole di screti on of Cycle News. Unsol icited ma teria l which is no t used will be returned if acco mpa nied by a ~J( addressed stamped envelope. All un solicited materia l will be ha ndled with reasonabl e care . ho wever. Cycle News ass umes no respo ns ibi lity for the safely, loss o r damage to such ma ter ia l. Reprinting in who le or part o n ly by permission of the publisher. Advertisin g ra tes a nd cir cu latio n infor ma tion will be-sent u po n request. See S. R.D.S. "at WBPA AUD ITED CIRCULAT ION Cop y rig ht e Cy cle New•• Inc. 1 9 8 8 . Tr. de·me rk Cyc le News registered U.S. Pete nt Office . All rightl reoerved. 4 W e're blushing I wanted to drop you a note to co m me nd you o n you r excellent coverage of th e mot ocross Grands Prix this year. While the monthl y ma gazines in th e U.S. cont in ue to neglect th eir obliga tion to cover th e most important motocross series, Cycle News has contin ued to p rovide timely, th oro ug h and accurate coverage fi om Europe. The addition of your "preview" issues this year was a tremendous idea ; I ca n hon estl y say that readin g the Unadill a preview on th e way to New York added gr eatly toan already enjoya ble mot ocross weekend. At th e beginning of th e year I was search ing for a way to su bscri be to Mo to Revue (a French magazine) in order to stay up to da te on Europe; with yo ur reporting tha t obvious ly won 't be necessary. . Keep up the good work! KEVIN CONNOR Columbus,OH I've been searchin' Help! Do you have a phone number/map for Mik e's Sky Ranch? . M.HANSON Mira Lorna, CA M ik e's Sky Rancho is off th e beaten track in northeast Baja, M ex ico, approximately 20 m il es so u th of H ighwa y 3. If yo u're headed to M ike's from Ensenada, the road to th e rancho is approximately IO m iles east of Valle de Trin idad. If yo u're headed west from H ighwa y 5 yoti'll fi nd th e road approximately 40 m iles wes t of th e H ighway 3/ H ighwa y 5 junc tion . Informat ion can be obtained by writing: M ike's Sk y Rancho, P.O . Bo x 5376, San Ysidro, CA 92073 or by calling 213 /5602II 9 .. . Editor. Femme thanks On behalf of all th e girls who participated in the 2nd Annual Women's Championship Series, I would like to thank the following sponsors who made this special event possible: Answer Products, JT RacIng, O'Neal, H i:Point, White Bros., Race T ech , Dico Trailers, Roko Sport, Torco, Suzuki Country Racin g, DMC (Dave Miller Concepts), and Pro Circuit Racing. Support from all of th ese fin e sponsors is what made this event a bi g success. TAMI RICE Women 's Motocross Assoc. Riv erside, CA Gua rantee it' ll be better As a longtime member of th e WMRRA, I would li ke to respond to the letter by And erson Ra cing (Voices, July 27 issue) regarding their disappointment wi th treatment received at o ur six-ho ur end ura nce race. T o begin with, let me say th at as ano ther of th e competitors in that race , I ca n no t co mp letely di sagree that the orga n izatio n/execu tion was very poor. H owever, rather th an s~y, " I didn't have anything to do with it," I must accept some of th e blame as I chose th e path of too many others and decided to just kick back and be a racer, rather than help out on race da y. Let me make on e thing clear, however: WERA had nothing to do with th e running of th e race weekend; th ey only agreed to accept the results towards their West Coast Ch ampionship Series. On more specific notes: And erson Racing paid $75 rather than $50 for practice because th ey chose to use two bikes. I'm sorry if you felt you were char ged unfairl y, but I think a monetary loss in excess of $3000 fo r the weekend is abo ut a ll our club cares to stand. As for unlicensed riders co mpe ting in Sunday's race, a nyo ne who didn 't alread y hold a c urre nt r oad ra ce license was required to buy a weekend license after being approved by WMRRA executive board members. . On Sunday we were operating under o u r usual ex tre mely stiff curfew which doesn 't allow any race motor s or the public address system to be used outside th e hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. A large contingent of wimps at the riders' meeting voted to have a warm-up lap, so everythin g else had to be backed up, cutting practice short, Regarding " severa l local rules broke" and " bla tant favoritism of club officials," the only thing anyone I've talked to can think of is th e referee's spontaneous decision to grid the late arrivals after the National Anthem, rather th an start them from the hot pits as was announced at the riders' meeting. By the way, none of those teams were local. As far as protests of scoring not being allowed, I know at least two teams had theirscores changed due to protests so I'm not certain wh at your problem was there. On th e good side of things, we rai sed $7500 for the March of Dimes through riders ga theri ng pledges, no one required th e ambulance, and we had th e best crash truck response time in th e recorded history of racing I Just remember th at th ings can .go wrong, as yo u proved by "traveling 1500 miles to a race , a team of 10 years experience" and had to borrow a fire extingu isher from our club .to meet th e rules. Fire extinguishers were there for sale, yet you were loaned one. Perhaps your treatment wasn't as poor as your 24th place finish is making you remember. If you have any constructive comments, or you or anyone you know is considering coming to any of the tracks here in the Northwest, give me a call at 206/367-1731 (leave your number) and maybe I can help make your stay a bit more comfortable. Next year's race will be considerably better run; I'll guarantee that! J OE DAVIS Past President, WMRRA • Renton, WA To hell in a handbasket Bob Leach and Ralph Hoffman outdid themselves in preparing th e Washougal, Washington, track for the la st AMA 125/500cc MX National of th e year and they deserve a big " well done." But from th ere all good went to hell in a handbasket, Motocross, in my opin ion, is a f~m il ~ sport, ~o ch ild can ge t started In thi s expensive sport without th e help of Mom and Dad. So wh y wh en we go to th e showcase event o nce a year do we have to be subjected to drunkeness, loud music and loud filth y mouths, including th e a n nou ncer, Larry What's His Name, who was unable to curb Bob Hannah 's mouth. . Kids only learn from adults and if Hannah feels he has to use cuss words to exp re ss himself, then Suzuki should loo k for a new spokesperson. , Then we come to th e AMA in this part of th e world. They were asking us to join th em. For what? They show their faces to the State of Washington for two even ts a year the Seattle Su percros s in th e Kingdome and Washougal - th e big money events! How abou~ us sm!1l1 track operators wh o ar e trying to give the yo u th a pl ace to ride and learn - th e art of sportsmanship. I have spent th e best part of six months putting a track back together. But .did the AMA offer anything? Not even encoura gement. Well now that I have that off my chest I'll ~o back to my track, finish the family area (no beer a llo wed), and await your call. JOHN DIXON Track Manager, SIR Enumclaw, WA Published letters do not necessa rily reflect the position of Cycle News, Inc. Letters are subject to condensation due to space limitations. Ano nymous letters will not be "published . Send letters to Voices, P.O. Box 498 , Long Beach, CA 908010498.

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